Guitarists

[ChickenScratch]

Your welcome. Learn the shapes one at a time, up and down the neck. Work through each chart, many are repeats of the same chords, but some explain things in different ways that might be understood more. You will eventually start to know what goes where, what is augmented, suspended, etc to make or change a sound.

It's a sign man. I've had 3 people this week alone ask me to give them guitar or bass lessons.

 

[Matt Mortem]

Question for y'all. I want new pickups for my BC Rich Warlock, but I don't know what I should be looking for really. I want a more powerful, aggressive sound.

 

[ChickenScratch]

You want to go passive or active? What kind of wood is the guitar made of? How many frets (important for the neck PU choice and the sonic sweet spot)? Figure out what you are looking for and come again.

 

[Matt Mortem]

You want to go passive or active? What kind of wood is the guitar made of? How many frets (important for the neck PU choice and the sonic sweet spot)? Figure out what you are looking for and come again.

I want to go active. My guitar has:

Agathis body

24 frets

Maple Neck

 

[ChickenScratch]

Agitas body? Throw it in the trash. Made in Korea? Indonesia?

Do what you want with it, not gonna make much of a difference playing on something with the tonal character of cardboard.

Ok, kidding aside. I'm not a fan of BC Rich on a whole. My bud (who I grfew up with and we learned to play alongside each other) had a Warlock and I had a Jackson PS4. It felt and sounded so bad in comparison with the Jackson it wasnt even funny.

Either way, you bought an import, bolt on guitar made out of ... not a tonewood. So I say, get EMGs. Active, overpowered and erases all personality from the gutiar. With EMGs in, all guitars no matter the construction type, body wood, etc are gonna sound similar.

 

[Matt Mortem]

To be fair, I bought it for $60 at a yard sale. I'm just super broke and can't afford a better sounding guitar. I thought maybe pickups would help me.

 

[ChickenScratch]

Do not waste your money putting a set of PUs in a $50 guitar. A set will be more expensive than the guitar itself. Besides, I'm sure there's a lot more wrong with it than just PUs.

 

[Spider-Who?]

Do not waste your money putting a set of PUs in a $50 guitar. A set will be more expensive than the guitar itself. Besides, I'm sure there's a lot more wrong with it than just PUs.

It’s certainly not going to turn it into an amazing sounding guitar, but it’ll help a tiny bit. I also think it’s fun/smart to take cheap guitars and practice swapping out better components; the last thing you want to do is to damage a more expensive guitar by modding it when you have no experience doing so.

Speaking of which, I’m in the process of upgrading hardware on my Epi Black Beauty. A major problem with that guitar (and most guitars under $1000) is that quality electronics are one of the first things companies sacrifice to keep costs low.

This week, I ordered a new harness kit from RS Guitarworks. This is a massive upgrade in electronics: pots, wires, capacitors, etc, which will improve overall tone and clarity, but I’m also in the market for some new pick ups …

The stock neck pup is pretty thick and muddy, absolutely no clarity and definition. Some of that will be improved with the new harness, but I’d still like to upgrade it. I’d love to get some Barden humbuckers to match the Barden single coils in my Strat, but I don’t have the funds for those at the moment.

I play a lot of blues and hard rock on the Epi, so I’m looking for something that’s relatively versatile and responsive to dynamics. A tight low end and nice highs is important (again, the stock neck pup is incredibly lifeless and muddy).

Does anyone here have any suggestions for neck position (passive) humbuckers?

 

[ChickenScratch]

Dimarzio Fred. Dimarzio Air Norton.

 

[KalMart]

Edit: Replaced the Vintage Sunburst '59 ES-335 with a Cherry one......

An amp build I finished a little while back...custom badge (with my initials) and faceplate.....

 

[antondlt]

Hey, guys. Can't bear to see such a good thread go to waste. Bump!

Guitarist here myself. I own a Stratocaster and an SG. Both are knockoffs, though. Anyway, I mostly play metalcore and blues.

 

[KalMart]

Latest semi-build project. Had tried out a friend's Fender Blues junior with the 'BillM' mods (tone/coupling caps and larger filter, take out 'sparkle mod'), and liked it quite a bit. Along with a better speaker, it definitely improved the 'size' of the sound and took away a lot of the boxiness of the stock amp. Made it much more gig-worthy for small places. So I got a used BJ for pretty cheap and did the mods, and liked it but wanted to go one step further and got a larger replacement cab from this builder.....

Custom Replacement Cabinets items in The Musicans Hardware Store store on eBay!

New cab is larger than the original BJ cab. Really helps the amps sound bigger with better 'elbow room', and pretty darn good volume especially with an Eminence Cannabis Rex speaker.

Went with blonde tolex w/ brown sides, oxblood on the circular speaker cloth. Put my own badge on, which I had made by Amplates.com and have used on my other builds. Wasn't very much more spent altogether than a brand new Blues Junior. I'm pretty happy with how it came out....a handsome little combo for both practice and small-to-medium gigs.

 

[antondlt]

Nice amp, bro. Have any plans on recording a sound test and uploading it soon?

 

[KalMart]

Not really, I don't really record...mostly like to play out live. I play better with a band too, so I'd feel kinda' weird. But maybe sometime.

 

[webhead9707]

I don't know how it sounds, but that amp looks beautiful!

 

[KalMart]

Thanks. It's only 15 watts, but its 15 TUBE watts so it can get loud enough for smaller to medium club stages for blues and such. Here in NYC you end up playing more small paces than larger ones, for which I have more powerful amps. With lower-wattage amps you can turn them up higher so they're in their 'happy zone'.

 

[antondlt]

So, my friend brought his cabinet amp three days ago. Sounded really nice, especially the effects. Didn't get to catch the brand though. Plus, the overdrives were SEXY.

 

[kane9321]

I'm just starting to learn,,never to old ..right?

 

[antondlt]

I'm just starting to learn,,never to old ..right?

Definitely, man. Never too old to learn how to shred. \m/ Or going blues too, if that's your thing. :bd

 

[3rdstone]

No one cared in the "R.I.P. celebrity" thread, but I guess this was better suited here anyway:

R.I.P. Paco de Lucia.

One of the most legendary guitarists out there. 66 is way to young..

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26351251

 

[3rdstone]

Latest semi-build project. Had tried out a friend's Fender Blues junior with the 'BillM' mods (tone/coupling caps and larger filter, take out 'sparkle mod'), and liked it quite a bit. Along with a better speaker, it definitely improved the 'size' of the sound and took away a lot of the boxiness of the stock amp. Made it much more gig-worthy for small places. So I got a used BJ for pretty cheap and did the mods, and liked it but wanted to go one step further and got a larger replacement cab from this builder.....

Custom Replacement Cabinets items in The Musicans Hardware Store store on eBay!

New cab is larger than the original BJ cab. Really helps the amps sound bigger with better 'elbow room', and pretty darn good volume especially with an Eminence Cannabis Rex speaker.

Went with blonde tolex w/ brown sides, oxblood on the circular speaker cloth. Put my own badge on, which I had made by Amplates.com and have used on my other builds. Wasn't very much more spent altogether than a brand new Blues Junior. I'm pretty happy with how it came out....a handsome little combo for both practice and small-to-medium gigs.

Spoiler

Wow, I've totally missed out on this. That's one gorgeous amp, KalMart! And to me it just screams blues.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Pantera- Floods
Best solo of all time

 

[antondlt]

No one cared in the "R.I.P. celebrity" thread, but I guess this was better suited here anyway:

R.I.P. Paco de Lucia.

One of the most legendary guitarists out there. 66 is way to young..

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26351251

Aw, crap, man. That sounds really young. My dad listens to him...

 

[KalMart]

So I had a 2010 Historic 1959 ES-335, wich I loved everything about...except that it was vintage sunburst, and I prefer cherry. Got a deal on a 2011 cherry of the same model, and testament to Gibson Custom's consistency, it felt and played just the same. So I'm selling the sunburst, and keeping the cherry...a guitar that I've lusted for since I was a kid but couldn't find one with a neck shape and feel that I liked until now.


With aged vintage-style pickup covers and reflector knobs (which is more a 1960 format, but love reflectors)...

Also will try a small pickguard because I prefer the smaller ones on cherry ES-335s (making it more of a 1961), but we'll see which one I go with. But it looks like I FINALLY found my dream 'redhead'.....

......oh, and a nice guitar, too.

 

[Greeneyes]

No one cared in the "R.I.P. celebrity" thread, but I guess this was better suited here anyway:

R.I.P. Paco de Lucia.

One of the most legendary guitarists out there. 66 is way to young..

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26351251

What a legend. Sad to see him pass at such an age.